Gustav Klimt wasn’t the greatest artist of his time, but he is one of the most popular, a fact reflected in the $135m fetched last year by his portrait – all golden glitter and sensuous decoration – of Adele Bloch-Bauer. This book is the most complete study of his work ever. It provides much new material, including previously unknown paintings, most of them done early in his career for buildings in far-flung parts of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The main attractions are the documentary photographs and colour reproductions, almost all of breathtaking quality. The details of Klimt’s mosaics in the dining room of the Palais Stoclet in Brussels, which for years was inaccessible to the public, are simply stunning. All that bothers me is the book’s shape and enormous size. It is an unwieldy and narrow A3 format, which means that too many of Klimt’s square paintings cannot be reproduced fully. It is still my art book of the year: an excellent read and gorgeous to look at.

KLIMT edited by Alfred Weidinger
Prestel £89

Times Recommends

• Superfreakonomics by Steven D Levitt and Stephen J Dubner
• The Times picks the 50 best paperbacks of 2009
• Vincent van Gogh’s letters show the soul of the artist